I hadn't really thought about it until I saw the pics above, but if the pattern is to be believed, BMW make two model iterations that, by and large, look related, and then they change the overall design theme completely.

Yes. Whether or not there has been a conscious effort to do it that way or not, that is how it has gone. Some correctly predicted the largely evolutionary styling direction of the F3x before it was seen testing based on this pattern.

__________________

A gen-u-ine BMW eff-eight-zero with them tandem clutches in the transmission and that dad gum sun roof on the top-a da cawr.